Tuesday, September 20, 2011

What is that thing on the Centennial Cake?

The Centennial Cake in the atrium is topped with a coconut shell fashioned into a head. Ever wonder what it has to do with MTSU? Thanks to Mayo Taylor, intrepid librarian, we have the answer.That’s Harvey. Back in the 1950s there was a fierce football rivalry between MTSU and Tennessee Tech. The competition garnered the interest of Fred Harvey of Harvey’s Department Store, who awarded an Alaskan totem pole to be used as a rotating game prize. The plan was for the winner of the annual clash between the football teams to house the prize for the following year but it became a great sport for the other school to steal the totem pole, usually in the week leading up to the next big game. MTSU always called the totem pole Harvey but at Tennessee Tech it was knows as the Shinny-Ninny because of the antics of a school mascot who liked to feign comic fits when he had control of the pole.